Summary of El enigma de Colón Parte 3

00:00:00 - 00:05:00

The third video in the "El enigma de Colón" series focuses on the difficulties of extracting DNA from the remains of Christopher Columbus. While there is hope that new technology will help determine Columbus' genetic heritage, it is unlikely that this will prove whether he was of Italian or Spanish descent.

• 00:00:00 Charles Merrill, a Barcelona-based historian, has come to Barcelona to investigate a theory that colonial explorer Christopher Columbus was not Italian, but Spanish and specifically Catalan. He meets with French researcher Albardaner at the Colombieres Colombian Studies Center, which believes that Columbus was actually Catalan. Together, they visit a house that belonged to a noble family of Barcelona- the Colomos according to the Catalan theory. The family common of Barcelona was a powerful banking family shipping their ships throughout the Mediterranean. Therefore, Colom within this family belonged to a dynasty of seafarers. Some of his biographers have called him Colombia, the original name of which is Catalan, but which was eventually changed to Columbus in Spain because he was a member of this family. Colom adjusts perfectly to the profile of the explorer who would be educated and from a powerful maritime dynasty but then why did he conceal his past? The writings of Admiral Christopher Columbus may contain important clues in a letter he wrote to the kings at the end of his life, saying something extraordinary that he had commanded a ship during the civil war in Catalonia against the family of King Fernando II. This would have made King Ferdinand, who later financed his voyage to the new world, beholden to Colom. If true
• 00:05:00 In the third video in the "El enigma de Colón" series, Prof. Lorente from the Dallas TX lab talks about the challenges of extracting adn from remains of Christopher Columbus. His team is hopeful that the new technology they're using for analysis will help them finally determine Columbus' genetic heritage. However, even if the adn analysis is successful, it will not help Charles Merril prove that Columbus was of Italian or Spanish descent.